If you've done San Francisco a dozen times and concluded that you've seen it all, consider exploring a couple of the city's incongruous neighbors: Nob Hill and Russian Hill.

Though similar-sounding and leaning against each other, they were born under different stars and channel a completely different vibe. Nob Hill was a playground for the city's wealthy founding fathers and remains home to elegant hotels and sights; Russian Hill was named for a Gold Rush-era burial site of seven Russians, and offers a tapestry of shops and restaurants that summon comparisons to Portland's Alberta or Hawthorne neighborhoods.

If you start your visit, as we did, on Nob Hill, you can absorb the area's history and get oriented through a walking tour with Hobnob Tours (www.hobnobtours.com). From there you can walk or grab a cable car to most of the city's most worthwhile sights, and explore Russian Hill by day or night.

Elegant Nob Hill

Even if you don't stay there, The Fairmont San Francisco (fairmont.com/san-francisco) is worth a visit just to drink in its breathtaking lobby. The rooms are similarly fine, with heavy, marble-topped furnishings, plush carpeting, gorgeous porcelain and brass lamps, and, from some rooms, a million-dollar view to downtown and the bay.

It's the kind of place where you feel compelled to speak in a hushed voice, and listen carefully for the echoes of the past.

Just down the street, the Scarlet Huntington (huntingtonhotel.com) also takes you back to another time at its Big 4 Restaurant on the ground floor – a monument of burnished wood, plush green leather, brass and copper. A recent renovation has reimagined the rooms in an Asian motif that has jarred some longtime patrons, but the hotel's career staff members are grace personified.

Our guide with Hobnob Tours, Margot Heltne, met us in the Fairmont's lobby, where she shared a collection of old photographs of the silver kings – James Fair, James C. Flood, John Mackay, and William O'Brien -- who made their fortunes through claims on Nevada's famed Comstock Lode.

Fair bought the lot where the Fairmont now stands. His daughter, Tessie, inherited the property and built a Renaissance-style hotel that was extensively damaged in the great fire of 1906. Renowned architect Julia Morgan, who went on to design Hearst Castle, was hired to restore it.

Heltne guided us through the hotel and outside, where Flood's brownstone home still stands, though it has been home to a male-only social club for 125 years.

"Back in the boom times a lot of Southern women came to San Francisco, and of course there were all the miners," Heltne said. "The effect was that you had this mix of Southern chivalry and Western shovelry."

Members of another famous foursome in California history – the Big Four who built the Central Pacific Railroad – also constructed homes on Nob Hill.

The site of Collis Huntington's home is now a park. Where Charles Crocker lived now stands Grace Cathedral (gracecathedral.org), whose soaring vault, stained glass and wall murals are surpassed only by its Ghiberti Doors, a replica of the famed bronze doors crafted for the Duomo in Florence during the Renaissance.

Shopping in Russian Hill

To make your way down from Nob Hill to the shops and eateries on and around Polk Street in the Russian Hill neighborhood, you can either stay on your feet or grab a cable car for the short ride. You'll want to take a detour at some point to walk (don't drive!) the neighborhood's most famous sight – the eight hairpin turns that make a block of Lombard the "crookedest street."

We started our exploration with breakfast at La Boulange Bakery (laboulangebakery.com). It's part of a chain, but also cozy and remarkably cheap (baguettes, pastry and a mixture of coffees and juice for four for under $15).

You can watch this neighborhood wake up on a weekend morning as we did, sitting on a street-side table over pastries.

Along Polk resides an eclectic mixture of shops, from lingerie to hardware to sporting goods. We found a packed farmers market on a Saturday morning, and an assortment of delis with fruits and flowers on display out front. Restaurants and bars abound.

Amid all these choices, a few favorites emerged:

* Cheese Plus (cheeseplus.com) is a first-rate wine and cheese shop, with notes posted on favored selections, like those you find at Powell's Books. You'll bump into a French Sancerre next to an Oregon pinot noir from Ken Wright, and deli cases populated with a double cream cremont from Vermont, a Stilton from England, a Rogue River blue reserve from Oregon, and on and on...

* The Russian Hill Bookstore (russianhillbookstore.com) has new and used books, first editions, games, stationery and a nice selection on San Francisco and its history.

* Café Zitouna (sfcafezitouna.com) doesn't offer any pretense in the décor, but the owner may end up waiting on you, and the Moroccan food is hot, flavorful and authentic. Try the tea, redolent of mint and steeped in sugar.

We boarded the cable car one night after dinner there, and I asked the operator whether he wanted to see our tickets.